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Recently I wrote about the indefatigable, on-the-field leadership of Ray Lewis, the inside linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens who is responsible, in part, for the team winning Super Bowl XLVII and who is retiring after 17 years of all-star service to the game.

What I neglected to mention in the Ravens roll call of leaders is the off-the-field leadership of Brendon Ayanbadejo, another Ravens linebacker who has very publicly defended the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to marry.

I was reminded of his leadership at a recent family dinner (before the Super Bowl). My partner asked her niece which team she wanted to win. Her niece said she didn't know much about the teams so didn’t really care. To which my partner then responded: “Well, if you don’t care one way or the other about the teams, you should root for the Ravens because of that player who supports gay marriage. They must be the least homophobic team in the NFL.”

While the media has reported that some of Ayanbadejo’s teammates object to gay marriage, the Ravens are likely the only NFL team where the issue is even discussed in the locker room.

After winning the Super Bowl this past week, Ayanbadejo, a father of two, sat down with entertainment impresario Russell Simmons to discuss gay marriage, part of a weeks-long publicity campaign he started to leverage some of his Super Bowl-generated celebrity to help the gay-marriage cause.

“Being the first pioneer publicly accepting same-sex marriage in the three major sports was difficult at first but the more people scrutinized me and ridiculed me, the stronger I became for the issue,” Ayanbadejo told Simmons in the interview. “It was like lifting weights; the resistance made me stronger, stand taller and speak louder for LGBT rights!”

I know a little more about Ayanbadejo than the other NFL players. He’s been a student of the George Washington University School of Business STAR EMBA program, a unique executive MBA program that is designed for celebrities and athletes. Ayanbadejo is one of several dozen athletes who are using the executive MBA experience to build their business acumen for profit and for charity.

One of the things I most admire about our STAR EMBA students, and Ayanbadejo epitomizes this, is their commitment to philanthropy. Three-quarters of the men and women who come to STAR EMBA are there in hopes of gaining new insights on how to establish a philanthropic organization. The remaining 25 percent already have a charity or foundation. It is a heartening example of giving back, and Ayanbadejo is doing just that with his advocacy for LGBT rights.

Ayanbadejo says that his support for gay rights comes out of a childhood where he was introduced to people of different cultures and lifestyles. He told Frank Bruni, the New York Times columnist, that his stepfather at one time had been the resident director of an LGBT dormitory at the University of California at Santa Cruz. “I was raised around gay people in a very liberal society,” Ayanbadejo recalled. “Discrimination was never allowed.”

Despite the anti-gay comments of some of his NFL opponents in the last month, Ayanbadejo sees a new generation of players changing attitudes in the league. "The NFL culture has come a long way from four years ago. The younger generation of players are a lot more open-minded, forward thinking and accepting of the LGBT community,” he told Simmons.

That may be so but it doesn’t negate the courage it took Ayanbadejo to speak publicly about gay marriage in a sport that is defined by an outdated image of machismo. Ayanbadejo made gay marriage acceptable in the locker room. No easy feat.

And while his other Super Bowl-winning teammates may be “going to Disney World” to celebrate their victory, Ayanbadejo said he was heading to STAR EMBA to continue his executive MBA program to prepare for life after football.

It makes me proud to be associated with students like Brendon Ayanbadejo. I admire his leadership on this important issue, and I look forward to seeing where his career after football will take him.